I’m fascinated that each time I talk with a successful entrepreneur discovering that a key part of their success is due to one or more mentors.
I remember starting online back in 1999 and having both paid and “friendly” mentors that helped me with everything from mindset through understanding the business models, warning about common pitfalls and helping with various tools and resources.
Not only was this advice time-saving and resulted in clear profits, I’m certain I would not be where we are today if it had not been for this early mentor.
Mentoring is critical in the beginning, making sure you start right and get out of the gates quickly but it can be just as important as you continually progress to new levels in your business.
Here’s a recent article from Richard Branson on Virgin’s blog talking about his view of the importance around mentorship.
Mentors serve some very important role in your success:
- They instill belief at a deep level that what you may seek to achieve can really be accomplished – belief is a powerful thing
- They can help reduce your learning curve on confusing/mind-numbing aspects of getting your online business setup and running – this reduction can be huge
- Mentors can help you avoid giant mistakes, most mentors have made those same mistakes and can save you from that painful experience
- Mentors can let you see opportunities or positions that you may not yet have thought of – breakthrough ideas
- Mentors can save you tens of thousands of dollars with solid resource and tool suggestions
- Mentors can extend your expertise – we can’t all be experts in everything, you may be great at generating traffic but you may suffer with converting that traffic into profit – a mentor can help bridge the gap
What is your view of mentors…have you found a mentor yet that has helped you in life and in business?
